Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol 30, Issue 5 246-248, Copyright © 2001 by British Institute of Radiology

ARTICLES

Diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography for cervical metastases at different anatomical levels in carcinoma of the tongue

I. Ogura, T. Kurabayashi, T. Amagasa and T. Sasaki
Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the variation in diagnostic accuracy of CT in the assessment of cervical lymph node metastases from tongue carcinoma at different anatomical levels. METHODS: Sixty-one patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue who underwent radical neck dissection were included in this study. The CT and histopathological findings at nodal levels I-V were compared for the presence or absence of lymph node metastases. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV) and positive predictive value (PPV) of CT were evaluated for each nodal level. RESULTS: The sensitivity of CT was: level I, 85%; level II, 77.8%; level III, 53.3%; level IV, 66.7% and level V, 25%. There was a significant difference in the sensitivity between the level I-II group (80.9%) and level III-V group (53.6%) (P=0.012). There was no significant difference in the specificity, NPV, and PPV between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The sensitivity of CT in detecting cervical lymph node metastases was significantly smaller at levels III-V than at levels I-II.

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				I Ogura, T Kurabayashi, T Sasaki, T Amagasa, N Okada, and T Kaneda Maxillary bone invasion by gingival carcinoma as an indicator of cervical metastasis Dentomaxillofac. Radiol., September 1, 2003; 32(5): 291 - 294. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]